Mark Farrell considered closing his restaurant, Home Plate Diner, on Rockingham Road in Davenport earlier this year.
Since he opened in June 2024, the restaurant hasn’t so far made enough money to sustain itself, Farrell said. He took out a loan. But it wasn’t enough. Bills were piling up, and Farrell thought he would have to close up for good.
But then a fellow business owner recommended he contact his alderman and see if the city could help. The city gave the business $7,500 in August in exchange for Farrell working with Eastern Iowa Community College’s Small Business Center and reporting to the city how he spent the money.
The money helped prevent Farrell from going under, but he’s putting his hope in implementing suggestions from the small business center to drum up more business.
“Just having more money isn’t going to automatically make the business able to sustain itself,” Farrell said, sitting in one of the booths in his diner. “The suggestions and ideas from the small business center is what’s going to have to help change things.”
Among the suggestions for the diner is to open on Sundays, post photos of their food on Facebook in addition to the menu, and more heavily promote or offer deals on their homemade pies.
“You don’t have a whole lot of places doing homemade pies, so he wants me to make this place known as as the pie guy — that I’m the pie guy” Farrell said.
The city offering help to Farrell is a model the city is hoping to deploy to other businesses in the Rockingham Road corridor to spur some investment by new and existing food-related businesses. The corridor has been hit hard by business closures in recent years, most high profile of which was Hy-Vee.
Davenport is hoping small grants will help spur some investment in the corridor. The city council set aside $500,000 from interest on pandemic-relief dollars cities received for development in the West End.
After Hy-Vee closed its Rockingham Road location, the city hoped to use the money to attract another grocery provider, said Bruce Berger, the city’s director of economic development. But despite offers from the city to buy the building and lease it inexpensively, no grocery provider was interested.
So, the council and staff turned to a small business grant program.
The Davenport city council will vote next week on a new pilot program that would put $100,000 in American Rescue Plan Act interest funding to provide grants to start-ups and existing food-related businesses that are struggling or seeking to expand.
The Rockingham Road corridor is within a census tract that’s designated as an urban food desert, according to the USDA and Sustainable Iowa Land Trust.
Applications would be accepted on an ongoing basis until funding runs out. Businesses could receive grants ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 and consideration would be given to history and experience, the need for the business, and location in the corridor, according to the city.
Examples of eligible businesses, according to the city council background documents, could be restaurants, grocery, coffee, ice cream, drive-through, catering or food production. Ineligible businesses would be those whose substantial sales come from selling vape, cigarettes, alcohol, and gas.
Businesses that receive grants would need to consult with the Small Business Center at Eastern Iowa Community College and complete reports to the city.
Other incentives are also available, Berger said. The area is covered as part of an Urban Revitalization Tax Exemption district and the city offers small business loans.
DeWayne Simons, a business owner who is running for an at-large seat on the Davenport city council, told the council Wednesday that even the upper limit of $25,000, isn’t enough. He expressed frustration that in his view, the city had allowed the West End to spiral in its deterioration.
“25,000 dollars ain’t nothing. What are you going to do? Pay a few months rent, pay a few employees, and you’re out of money,” Simons said.
Rick Dunn acknowledged $25,000 isn’t a lot, but said it’s a start. Overall, council members expressed support for the pilot program and thanked staff for putting it together.
“It’s not. But it’s something. It’s something. We have to start somewhere,” Dunn said. “We took a half million dollars and said you know what? Let’s take that half million dollars and set it aside. Maybe we can entice somebody to come into Hy-Vee, but it ain’t working.”
Dunn encouraged people to visit Rockingham Road businesses and support them “or they’ll be leaving.”
Farrell’s grandmother operated a restaurant called the Kozy Kitchen in the same location for 12 years. He chose the location on Rockingham because of the family history and because it’s seating and layout was geared toward a family diner.
He hopes implementing the suggestions from the business center and doing more marketing will help Home Plate Diner keep its doors open.
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Sarah Watson
Davenport, Scott County, local politics
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